


Dappled Sunlight and Cat Ears

by phoenixyfriend



Series: Blame Tumblr Prompts [23]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Cat Ears, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-04
Updated: 2016-12-04
Packaged: 2018-09-06 12:33:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,197
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8751538
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phoenixyfriend/pseuds/phoenixyfriend
Summary: Sai is of the opinion that Shikamaru, and everything he does, is adorable. Cat ears would just make everything better.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the tumblr prompt:
>
>> You wanted a shikasai prompt right? Uh, here: "Can we pretend I didn't just say that?" (sorry if this wasn't what you meant)
> 
> You can blame this on @alexandralumetta on tumblr, sort of. The lovely art she drew for my kiss meme prompt made me excited to write something for these dorks for the first time in *checks FFnet* three years, apparently.
> 
> Oh god, it’s been three years already since I wrote ShikaSai (mostly by accident, into a fic I refuse to mention by name because it’s terrible).
> 
> If you’re wondering why the ears happen, it’s a reference to a really dumb thing I did in that fic.

Sai’s hands are careful where he traces over Shikamaru’s thin, near-invisible scars. Unlike his late father, Shikamaru has very little thick, ragged scarring on any of the visible parts of his body. His skin is, for a shinobi, very clear.

Sai likes that, because it means Shikamaru spends his days _safe_. Shikamaru isn’t on the front lines in the same way others are; he goes, but he’s a guiding force for Chouji and a protector for Ino’s body, rarely engaging an enemy directly. He is, in all senses of the word, a long-distance fighter who fights more with his mind than with his fists.

“You’re thinking too much again,” Shikamaru mutters, one eye cracking open to look up at Sai. He’s lying on his back on the ground, using Sai’s lap as a makeshift pillow, and napping.

“Hypocrite,” Sai responds immediately, which makes Shikamaru snort. Sai’s own mouth quirks into something approaching a smile; he likes making Shikamaru laugh. It’s nice to know that he can make his boyfriend happy, and it means he’s getting the whole humor thing right.

(When he gets it wrong, though, Shikamaru’s willing to spend the time he needs to explain _why_  he got it wrong, no matter how troublesome it is.)

“Off-duty time,” Shikamaru argues back, yawning. “Not thinking, just dozing.”

“So you say,” Sai hums. “Do you mind if I rest my drawing pad on you?”

“Meh,” Shikamaru yawns again. “Try not to block out the sun from my face?”

“I’ll use your shoulder, then,” Sai says, moving to do just that.

“Wait,” Shikamaru says, and Sai stills for long enough for Shikamaru to readjust himself a little so that his head is resting on Sai’s far leg, and he’s lying face up instead of curled to his side. He closes his eyes again and tilts his head back to face the sun. “I’m good.”

Sai feels himself smile a little, and accepts the change in position. Drawing on Shikamaru’s chest is going to be much easier than drawing on his shoulder.

They stay like that for a while, Sai sketching on a drawing pad in pencil and Shikamaru simply dozing away, slowly slipping deeper into sleep as time passes.

Sai likes staying like this, calm and quiet in the dappled shade of a tree on a hill. It’s nice. Peaceful.

Shikamaru makes a small noise in his sleep and shifts minutely, but it’s enough to mess up one of the lines of Sai’s drawing. He huffs a little under his breath and goes to fix it.

A butterfly lands on Shikamaru’s noise.

He makes the noise again, wrinkling his nose, before sneezing a little and scaring it off.

Sai pauses in his drawing and tilts his head.

That… that kind of sounded like a cat.

Hm.

Sai stares down at his boyfriend for a moment, then pulls a dry brush out of his pouch and tickles Shikamaru’s nose with it.

Shikamaru makes the little whining noise again, and Sai slight smile widens. That absolutely sounded like a little kitten mewl.

That’s _adorable_.

He tickles Shikamaru again, just because he can, and then an idea occurs to him. He has a feeling that it is, in fact, a fairly terrible idea, but it’s still tempting.

…Sai gets his ink out.

It’s a matter of seconds to draw what he wants on his sketchpad, and then a few more seconds to have it crawl off the page and head for Shikamaru’s face, scant inches away.

Sai recaps his ink and starts to just watch his boyfriend, reveling in the cuteness.

Sure enough, Shikamaru wakes up a few seconds later, feeling the weight of Sai’s gaze and the plausibly uncomfortable sensation of wet ink on his face and in his hair.

“Sai,” he says, and waits.

“Yes?”

“Why do I smell wet ink like it’s right on top of my nose?”

“There’s ink on your nose,” Sai tells him. This answer is, in his own opinion, a very helpful one.

He’s only _mostly_  sarcastic.

(Sarcasm is fun. Sakura taught him about it last month, and he’s been practicing.)

“Sai, did you draw on my face while I was asleep?” Shikamaru asks after a moment, cracking open one eye to glare sleepily at him.

“No,” Sai answers truthfully. “I drew on my sketchpad and had it crawl onto your face.”

Shikamaru purses his lips together and levers himself up to a sitting position, and Sai pulls his knees up to his chest to give him more room.

“Is it going to come off?”

“The second I tell it to, yes.” Sai considers for a moment. “There may be some light staining, but it’ll come out of your skin with very little washing.”

“Okay,” Shikamaru shakes his head, and Sai doesn’t even _try_  to stop the smile that crawls its way onto his face. He rarely tries these days. “What, and why, did you paint on my face?”

Sai digs through his bag and… Ino’s been helping Sakura and Shikamaru teach him how to people, and she insists that carrying a compact is bound to be useful at all times. Surprisingly, Sai has found this to be true more often than not, like now. He just pulls it out and hands it over to Shikamaru, who delicately takes it and sees what Sai painted on him.

He sighs.

“I think it’s cute,” Sai says as the inky cat ears he’d put on his boyfriend’s head twitch at his own direction. The lines of the catlike makeup actually do achieve exactly the effect Sai was hoping for. “And you make little cat noises when you sleep.”

Shikamaru looks into the compact again and wrinkles his nose a little. It makes his whiskers twitch.

“Okay, fine, it’s not terrible. It actually is a little… cute,” Shikamaru admits. “But Ino never hears about this.”

“So I can do it again?”

“I never said that,” Shikamaru says. “I mean, maybe… wait, no, this is not a good idea.”

“You like it!” Sai smiles. This is a good thing.

“Can we pretend I didn’t just say that?” Shikamaru complains, scratching behind one of the inky ears. “Seriously. Ino will never let it go if she finds out.”

Sai tilts his head. He doesn’t see why it would be funny, but he understands the sentiment, he supposes. “Okay? But it is very cute.”

He reaches out and ruffles the ears, because they _are_. They almost look real, even.

“Tch.” Shikamaru shakes his head. “You’re going to cuddle me with no hopes of drawing now.”

“But--”

“That’s what you get for drawing on me,” Shikamaru sniffs, and then crawls into Sai’s lap and cuddles up against his chest. “You are very troublesome person, sometimes.”

Sai frowns.

“It’s not a bad thing,” Shikamaru says through a yawn. “Just kind of tiring sometimes.”

Sai wraps his arms around Shikamaru as he starts to doze again.

Well, ‘troublesome’ is about the least insulting insult that Shikamaru could have levied against him, so...

Yeah.

He’s okay with this.

Sai rests his head on top of Shikamaru’s and smiles.

(He likes the way natural smiles feel on his face.)

(They come so much easier these days.)


End file.
